Don’t think about the past, Angelos Angelou told local leaders tonight, focus on the future.

Don’t worry about the jobs you’ve lost in manufacturing and the auto industry. Target a few fast-growing industries — nanotechnology, data centers, clean energy, life sciences — and become “centers of excellence” for them.

Attract and retain educated young people, and better educate the young people who are here, he said, so Rockford can compete with other communities as current workers age and retire. Teach entrepreneurship in school and beyond and publicly recognize those who take chances and succeed.

Most of all, publicize the region’s strengths and the opportunities that are here for businesses.

“Economic development is all about perceptions, not reality. Brand it, brand your city, brand your region,” Angelou said at the Rockford Area Economic Development Council’s annual dinner. Angelou is founder and CEO of AngelouEconomics, one of the largest independent economic development and site-selection firms in the country.

At a time when the RAEDC is trying to raise $7.5 million for its five-year economic development campaign, Rockforward!, Angelou said to aim higher. Rockford should take its cues from his hometown of Austin, Texas, which grew from a city known just for politicians and universities to a technological and cultural capital.

“If your goal is $7 million, exceed it. There are over 400 small cities in Texas that have more budgeted to do economic development than you do,” he said. “Make the regional economy what it could be.”

He said the Rockford area goes after too many different industries and may be spreading itself too thin in those efforts. Instead, Rockford should target key industries and make direct contact with companies they would like to see here. Business and public leaders should visit them in person.

Meanwhile, the RAEDC should continue to update its Web site to give site selectors and corporate decision-makers the information they need quickly, he said.

But for those companies to come here, they need to have “shovel-ready” sites that have the infrastructure they need, Angelou said. They need to get incentives to offset the state’s high corporate income tax. They need an easy permitting process.

“I heard about a lot of upcoming projects” in a 90-minute tour of the city earlier in the day, he said. “I have yet to see a very modern industrial park in place.”

He said Rockford’s lack of home rule, which means the city needs state approval to make certain taxing and lawmaking decisions, is a turn-off to companies. Any city in Illinois with more than 25,000 residents automatically gets home rule, but Rockford lost its home-rule rights in 1983 after voters were upset by consecutive property-tax increases.

“How could you possibly expect the private sector to show confidence in your public affairs and your community when you don’t show the same level of confidence? When you are not a home-rule city, you’re saying that you are not taking hold of your own destiny.”

Angelou commended efforts to draw coveted 25- to 44-year-olds, saying “this demographic is to economic development what bandwidth is to the Internet.” But he said newcomers to the community aren’t welcomed into leadership, that is seems they have to pass “a test of being here five years” before getting appointed to boards and community groups.

Instead, they should be actively be recruited to be part of local affairs and planning, he said. For Rockford to succeed, its downtown must be revitalized by young people living and working there.

Rockford lags the state and country in 25- to 44-year-olds with bachelor’s degrees, and if nothing significantly changes, the gap will widen in the next five years, he said.

Angelou urged Rockford-area residents to get involved in improving the community to make it more attractive to people and businesses looking to move here. He said they need to develop a sense of ownership and, rather than complain about companies that lay off workers or leave the area, celebrate those who move or grow here.

When there are news conferences announcing new projects in Austin, for example, hundreds of people show up.

“Companies no longer take care of communities. Communities take care of companies,” he said. “Ask not what economic development can do for you but what you can do for economic development.”

Staff writer Thomas V. Bona may be contacted at 815-987-1343 or tbona@rrstar.com.

What he thinks
Here’s Angelos Angelou’s take on Rockford as a place to attract business: